Russia chooses myth over history in new WWII movie

A massive blockbuster looks set to take Russia by storm. It’s the story of one of the best-known and most iconic episodes of World War II (for the Soviets): The sacrifice made by “Panfilov’s 28 Men" to save Moscow from the Germans.

There is just one small problem.

It’s not true.

This is a tale known to pretty much everyone who grew up in the old Soviet Union. Twenty-eight men, armed only with light weapons, heroically stopped a massed German tank attack on the very outskirts of Moscow in the darkest days of the war, on Nov. 16, 1941. It was a time when the Nazis seemed unstoppable. All the men died. It was a sacrifice comparable to Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, the story goes. There was no surrender.